Investment program can cut global health disparities by 2035

(HealthDay)—Global health disparities could be reduced considerably by 2035 using an investment framework, according to a report published Dec. 3 in The Lancet.

Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the World Development Report, Lawrence Summers, Ph.D., from Harvard University in Boston, and colleagues reexamined the case for investing in health and developed an investment framework to achieve considerable global health gains by 2035.

The authors note that the current generation has the financial and technological capability to begin closing the global health gap. The report outlines a framework for low- and lower-middle-income countries to achieve progress, potentially averting about 10 million deaths in 2035. These goals include reducing under-5 mortality to 16 per 1,000 live births and AIDs and tuberculosis deaths to eight and four per 100,000 population, respectively. These goals can be achieved by scaling up new and existing tools to manage diseases and by strengthening health systems, using a diagonal approach that focuses on managing the highest burden health challenges. The international community can support these goals by providing global public goods, especially research and development, and managing cross-border externalities.

"We are on the verge of being able to achieve a milestone for humanity: eliminating major health inequalities, particularly inequalities in maternal and child health, so that every person on earth has an equal chance at a healthy and productive life," Summers said in a statement.

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